“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and
narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”
—Mark Twain
Installment two of the great Arizona/New Mexico Road Trip...
Let me tell you a little secret about traveling with my
friend Kerri. You’d better be ready to GO. She packs more into a day than
almost anyone I know. I’m grateful for this, because I’m a bit of a slug by
nature. Each day of our trip was chock full of seeing the sights, driving,
talking, eating, listening to music or podcasts, hunting that perfect
photo, and exploring anything that caught our interest. Last week, I skipped ahead in our trip to write
about Antelope Canyon, but now I’m backtracking to our first day’s adventures:
Petroglyph National Monument is just outside Albuquerque,
New Mexico, and it was our first stop on the trip. After checking in at the
visitor’s center for advice on where to go if we didn’t have much time, we
settled on Boca Negra Canyon. It was a beautiful morning, with cobalt blue
skies and cool temperatures. A few minutes easy walk brought us into an
area of tumbled volcanic rock, and the petroglyphs were easily spotted on the
dark surfaces. These markings were created by Native Americans and early
Spanish settlers approximately 400-700 years ago. This area is considered a sacred
landscape by the American Indians, according to the Park Service brochure.
We also caught glimpses of the wildlife of the area—rabbits,
quail, lizards, and what might have been ground squirrels or prairie dogs—they
were too fast and too far away to tell.
Our next stop was a roadside attraction we stumbled upon:
Located in a collapsed lava tube, the ice on the floor is
approximately 20 feet deep. The deepest ice dates back to 1100 AD. Arctic algae
causes the ice’s green tint.
We finished off the day sunset gazing on the way to Cottonwood, Arizona:
Where we stayed at the delightful Iron Horse Inn.
In our next installment, our intrepid travelers
discover perhaps the world’s most delicious breakfasts, cliff dwellings, and even
more stunning rock formations.
*Kerri dubbed her Facebook photo album for our
trip “An Enchanted Meander”—and I’m shamelessly appropriating the name.
This is installment one of my 2017 Arizona/New Mexico road trip adventures with my friend Kerri.
As we bumped down the dirt road to the mouth of the canyon, tour company owner Jackie told us that Navajo culture is matriarchal, and the land we were seeing belonged to her mother. The rocky landscape was her home, the place she felt most comfortable. Just before she dropped us off, her words captured my imagination: “This is where the wind lives.”
Antelope Canyon, near Page, Arizona, is one of the most
visited slot canyons in the Southwest. (Slot canyons are narrow, deep canyons
carved by water.) Tours go to Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon, as well as a few
lesser-known canyons. We chose to visit “Canyon X,” with Taadidiin Tours (no affiliation).
After Jackie dropped us off, we descended into the canyon itself,
where we were met by a guide. The sandstone curves, swirls, and corkscrews,
carved by wind and water into sinuous shapes. Colors range from pale peach to deep purple, depending on the angle of the sun.
When the sun shines into the canyon just right, you can see the elusive trademark Antelope Canyon shaft of light. As we walked deeper between the curving walls, we saw our first one. (The guides toss fine sand into the air so it shows up in photos.)
If ever there is a place to look up, look down, look all around, it is here.
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| Looking up |
The guides helped us with our camera settings so we would get the best shots, and though they kept an eye on us, they allowed us to freely explore. It wasn’t mobbed with people the way the Upper
and Lower Antelope Canyon tours can be, and we were able to take our time
exploring, taking photos, and soaking up the peaceful atmosphere. I was even able to sit quietly and make a quick sketch of a section of the canyon. (The challenge will be mixing watercolor representative of the shades of rock I saw!)
A few more photos:
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| Canyon resident |
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| Looking down into the canyon entrance from where we were dropped off. |
I’m home. My suitcase is stowed, and I just finished the laundry, but I’m still unpacking my photos (all 700+ of
them) and my impressions. I’ll share tales from the road later this
week. Until then, here are a few photos of some of the things we saw.
Friendly aliens:
Charming towns:
Four-legged friends:
Rock formations:
More to come soon! Now about those 700 pictures...
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| Upper Antelope Canyon, Arizona, courtesy Josef Pichler |
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable.
Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey
changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your
consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you.
Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
—Anthony Bourdain
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